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Defending champion Cardinals make statement with 4-0 opening win

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — The Saint Mary’s University fastpitch softball team wanted it known from the minute they stepped on the field Thursday evening that just getting back to the NCAA Division III National Championships wasn’t enough.

The defending national champion Cardinals wanted more — much more.

And if their performance against Wheaton (Mass.) in their tournament-opener is an indication of things to come, it’s a message — no, make that warning — the rest of the eight-team tournament field better listen to.

Wheaton certainly heard it loud and clear.

“They are a very talented team, it’s no wonder they won (the national title) a year ago,” said Wheaton coach Gina Loudenberg, whose team managed just two hits in losing 4-0, just the Lyons' second loss in their last 10 games. “We are a young team (five freshmen and two sophomores among their starting nine) and this is a great learning experience for them.”

And who better to teach the Lyons than the defending national champs.

“They have nine players who all can hit the ball — and hit the ball hard,” said Loudenberg. “Plus they have great pitching and their defense is solid.”

In other words, SMU has the complete package.

Did you hear that, Muskingum?

“Near the end of the regular-season we really started putting all three elements of our game — hitting, defense and pitching — together, and when we do that, we’re confident we can win any game we play in,” said SMU coach Nikki Fennern, whose Cardinals take an 11-game post-season winning streak into Friday’s 6:30 p.m. winner’s bracket game against Muskingum, 3-1 winners over William Patterson earlier Thursday. “It was nice for us to get off to a good start, now we just have to keep it going.”

Which won’t be a problem if Cardinal pitcher Jennifer Gonerka (St. Paul, Minn.) has anything to say about it.

Gonerka, given the starting nod in her first-ever national championship game due to All-American Jill Hocking’s (Apple Valley, Minn.) untimely case of the flu.

Unfazed by being thrust into the starter’s role on Division III’s biggest stage, Gonerka held the Lyons to two hits — a two-out single in the second and a one-hit triple in the third — while striking out two and not walking a batter.

“I found out when we got to the field (that Hocking wasn’t healthy enough to start,” explained Fennern. “But when I told the team that Gonerka was going to start, it didn’t make a bit of difference to them. They have just as much confidence with Gonerka on the mound as they do with Jill.”

The pitching switch may not have been a big deal to the rest of the team, but it was to Gonerka.
“I was more nervous this time than I was at regionals,” admitted Gonerka, who tossed 5.2 innings of two-hit ball in the Cardinals’ 1-0, regional title-clinching win over Wartburg last Sunday. “(The start) was kind of sprung on me so I wasn't as prepared as I usually am.”

The pre-game jitters didn’t last long, however, as the SMU sophomore retired the first five batters she faced before giving up the second-inning single to Wheaton’s Brianna Shawah.
SMU’s offense gave Gonerka plenty of run support, getting solo runs in the second and third inning — the first on an RBI single from Lindsey Smith (Elma, Iowa) and the second on a single by Gina Rizzardi that scored Jennifer Miller from second — before icing the win on Hocking’s two-out, two-run single in the fourth.

“We got some timely hits, which is key when you get to this stage in the season,” said Fennern, whose team finished with eight hits — including a 2-for-3 performance from Jennifer Meyer (Oconomowoc, Wis.). “When we won (the regional title) last week, we talked about how just getting back to the national tournament wasn’t enough — we aren’t going to be satisfied just getting back here.

“Our No. 1 goal tonight was to make sure to come out and get things off on the right foot, and I think we did that.”

Wheaton certainly won’t argue.